The US is building a secret airbase “somewhere in the Middle East” from which the CIA can launch drone attacks against al-Qaeda targets in Yemen, in a hedge against the CIA being kicked out in a post-revolutionary situation.
Nearly 3,000 have crossed the border from Syria into Turkey as the Syrian army moves to put down an uprising in the northern town of Jisr al-Shughur. Friday protests meanwhile rocked some 50 cities and towns across the country.
As deadly repression continues to mount in Yemen, CIA director Leon Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the US has not halted cooperation with President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s embattled regime.
Beltway neocons are clearly heartened by the bloodshed, and see it as an opportunity to augment it with US bombardment, as in Libya. The Assad dictatorship meanwhile exploits the Israeli-occupied Golan Druze as a base of support.
After days of fierce fighting in Sanaa, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has reportedly fled the country for Saudi Arabia. Amid the chaos, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninusla seized control of the southern town of Zinjibar.
Iran cheers protesters in Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain while apparently backing the repression in Syria—just as the US cheers protesters in Syria while backing the repression in Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain.
The Muslim Brotherhood boycotted a “Day of Rage” protests demanding the ruling military council cede power to an interim civilian body and postpone elections until political parties can be organized.
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez phoned Syria’s Bashar Assad to pledge his support in the face of “fascist conspiracies” and “imperialist aggressions”—seemingly a little confused as to who the fascists are.
Gun battles erupted across the capital of Yemen as security forces clashed with fighters from the country’s most powerful tribe, in the fiercest battles yet between supporters and opponents of President Saleh.
Bahrain’s national appeal court unanimously upheld death sentences for two men convicted of killing police officers during anti-government protests in March. The court reduced the death sentences of two others to life in prison.
Thousands took to the streets across Syria for Friday protests, and security forces again responded with tear gas and live ammunition, leaving at least 32 dead. Protesters dubbed Friday “Azadi Day,” for the Kurdish word for freedom.
Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian ex-military officer who helped establish the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, has reportedly been named as al-Qaeda’s interim leader as the organization awaits a formal successor to Osama bin Laden.
